Tribune Media Co., one of the largest U.S. TV station operators, said Tuesday it would sell its media data unit, Gracenote, to advertising tracking company Nielsen Holdings Plc for $560 million.
Tribune Media said in February that it had hired investment banks Moelis & Co. and Guggenheim Securities to explore strategic options for the business.
Emeryville, California-based Gracenote, which began operations as a CD metadata provider nearly 20 years ago, offers a number of services such as audio and video content recommendations, TV guide data and sports data.
Tribune acquired Gracenote from Sony Corp. for $170 million in 2014.
Some of Gracenote’s customers include Apple Inc., Tesla Motors Inc., Time Warner Cable and Amazon.com Inc.
Nielsen is known for its television ratings that are used to determine ad rates for traditional TV commercials.